The most silent tourist site in China, the one devoid of any cars, cameras and phones, where even airplanes have been rerouted to avert disturbance. Yet, it continues to draw thousands of tourists.
Ever since the operation of this device commenced last September, the world’s largest telescope has welcomed as much as 240,000 tourists, as per local authorities.
It is based in the southwestern province of Guizhou.
This unique five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio telescope (FAST) is a single-dish telescope that has a diameter of nearly half a kilometer.
It had been created in Dawodang depression that represents a very impoverished region in Guizhou that is quite mountainous.
This telescope is utilized to probe space for the faintest signs of life and is sensitive to any kind of electromagnetic interference. Approximately 10,000 residents live in the core zone, within five kilometers of the telescope and they have all been evacuated.
One of the local tour operators named Liu Xingwu told the regional news media that all cameras and phones need to be deposited to the authorities prior they enter the core area. He added that since vehicle engine ignitions also produce electromagnetic waves, the sightseeing vehicles entering the core zone have been modified to remove all kinds of magnetic interference.
The telescope has also triggered a massive tourism boom for the country that provides shelter to 330,000 people.
As much as 1.2 billion yuan equaling to 188 million U.S. dollars.
A cultural park and an astronomical park is also being added to this attraction. Furthermore, new exhibition and theatre centres would be opening here prior to the National Day holiday in October according to Shi Bangze who is the director of the county tourism bureau. She, however feels that this increase in tourist arrivals should not interrupt the scientific studies under process at FAST.
A majority of the travellers generally visit this region on holidays and weekends.
She further stated that after the daily limit is reached, the tourists are immediately diverted to other scenic areas further away from the telescope.
